We met at Mum at Christchurch airport after having cycled there from Alexandra on our way to Auckland to fly out to Europe. Mum was supposed to fly down with her friend Nicola but unfortunately Nicola got Covid the day before the trip so mum arrived alone.
At 75 years young, Mum was all geared up for a rocky rough trek but she was blown away by the beauty of the area and the challenge of the run course.
She kept shaking her head and saying how she couldn’t believe I ran it in under 4.5hrs. But she was amazing, balancing on rocks, traversing scree slopes, clambering over boulders and climbing up and down wet rooty banks.
We felt very privileged to see 4 pairs of Whio and spent a bit of tine admiring their white water skills.
The birds were amazing with their singing and flying close to us. We saw Kereru, Piwakawaka, Tomtits, robins, bellbirds and of course the whio. It was lovely.
The river was up a bit so we didn’t take as many of the shortcut/fast lines that I could remember when I raced it but it was a lot of fun trying some.
Mum found the last push up the river quite exhausting and she was so happy to see the hut. We were stoked to be the only ones in the hut for several hours so we had space to cook and chill.
After a delicious dehy dinner and a hot chocolate we had an interesting German guy join us at the hut with his massive 32kg pack. We left him to do his thing and snuggled into our sleeping bags and had a great sleep.
We woke to the predicted misty fog so had a bit of a sleep in and coffee with our new sea to summit drip machine Myree had gifted us… very nice coffee!
We soon got a bit bored so headed out on a explore. Initially we had planned on taking mum up to Lake Mavis but when we saw the steep and long climb up a scree slope we didn’t think we’d attempt it. Funny how memories sometimes blur out the steep bits. All we remembered was how beautiful it was up there!
Lexie did very well with our track finding out to a nice lookout to start the walk!
And then we couldn’t help ourselves…. Lexie was nailing this adventuring business so we started walking up.
Up up up
However, a safety call was made by Debbie as the fog and rain started to roll in thick and fast. There were cairns to follow but in the fog you couldn’t see a thing.
Mum moved swiftly enough and we all got down to the hut before it started raining. It was a shame to have made it so close to the lake but it wasn’t worth taking the risk.
More hot drinks and snacks before dinner and then about 9 TA walkers rolled in through the door, cold and wet and as disappointed as us that there wasn’t a fire in the hut! We were so pleased that they all chose to go in the one bunk room, leaving us the other one.
We woke to a stunning day and were up and out the door before the TA walkers left. We’d met some lovely girls though and shared numbers.
Lots of board walks but more rock hopping and clambering for mum who was feeling her calf from a bout of cramp the previous day.
But the sun came out, we took off our jackets and overpants and we’re happy as, chatting, snacking and singing our way off the mountain. There was nowhere else we wanted to be.
We did it, Mum had done it. We were… are so proud of her. It’s a tough tramp and she nailed it.
Positive energy the whole way. What a way to be at 75. We both hope we’ll both be that capable when we’re her age. Thanks for the adventure Mum!
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